Thursday's Game

Tom Chiarella gets to play courses that most duffers can only dream of -- leaving divots, lost balls, and the occcasional picture-perfect pin shot in his wake. Chiarella is the serious amateur, the humbled hacker, and the appreciative fan all rolled into one. Golfers everywhere will identify with his tales of low-grade frustration centered on a dimpled ball and a fairway filled with traps. But these affectionate, tee-in-cheek reminiscences and respectful rantings are balanced by memories of those sublime moments when the shot rises like a rocket, straight and true, carrying over a long stretch of treacherous real estate to settle at last onto the cool comfort of the green. Thursday's Game showcases the freshest voice in golf writing today, perfect for the double-bogey man lurking in the house, that special someone who's only a new set of clubs away from breaking par.